Patrick John Morris (13 April 1948 – 16 January 2008) was a British composer, musician, and songwriter. He was educated at

Highgate School Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is an English co-educational, fee-charging, independent day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgate ...

Guildhall School of Music The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...

, the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

, and

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, where he obtained a degree in philosophy. Disillusioned with contemporary classical music in the style of

Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

and

Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mon ...

, he developed a style that one critic, Jonathan Witshire, has called "residual", a label he accepted. He described his main musical influences as

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

and

Brian Eno Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...

, whom he rated as the most important composers of the twentieth century. His style is associated with that of his contemporary

Howard Skempton Howard While Skempton (born 31 October 1947) is an English composer, pianist, and accordionist. Since the late 1960s, when he helped to organise the Scratch Orchestra, he has been associated with the English school of experimental music. Skempt ...

and has been compared to younger composer

Simon Rackham Simon Rackham (born 1964) is an English composer and artist. He is probably best known for his work;‘Which ever way your nose bends’ the first commission by the six piano ensemble Piano Circus, composed as a companion piece to Steve Reich’ ...

, who released a piece for two pianos called 'Warhorse' dedicated to the memory of Patrick Morris on his 2011 album, ''Once In a Blue Moonlight''. He placed his works into three groups, piano music, instrumental pieces and songs. For the songs he set poems to music and sang them, verses by

A. E. Housman Alfred Edward Housman (; 26 March 1859 – 30 April 1936) was an English classical scholar and poet. After an initially poor performance while at university, he took employment as a clerk in London and established his academic reputation by pub ...

W. E. Henley William Ernest Henley (23 August 184911 July 1903) was an English poet, writer, critic and editor. Though he wrote several books of poetry, Henley is remembered most often for his 1875 poem " Invictus". A fixture in London literary circles, the ...

Walter de la Mare Walter John de la Mare (; 25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was an English poet, short story writer, and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for a highly acclaimed selection of ...

and other well-known poets, and particularly the Australian-born poet Vicki Raymond. From about 1990, he wrote and sang his own songs, mysterious poems evoking an atmosphere of mortality, lonely, marginalised characters, and wistful melancholy. He gave regular concerts in St Michael's Church, Highgate. His music has been played on

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

, he has performed in Germany, the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

and

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. He produced a number of CDs, including ''They Call Him Mister P'', ''The World of Mister P'', ''The Essential Mister P'' and ''Slow Bulldozing with Mister P''. He also wrote the soundtrack for a number of arthouse films, including the documentary, ''LuXus'', about abstract painter Philip Diggle. For the last few years of his life he returned to the house in Highgate, where he had spent his childhood and where he was found dead on 16 January 2008.

References

External links

Patrick Morris: The World of Mr P...Steve Reich and Debussy: Some Connexions, by Patrick Morris © 1987 Cambridge University Press.A big rude man who everybody loved.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Patrick 1948 births 2008 deaths English composers English male songwriters People from Highgate People educated at Highgate School Alumni of University College London 20th-century classical composers 20th-century British composers